The Legend
Apr 3 2007, 12:37 PM
In FPN mythology fountain pens were deities who lived on an island.
All island locations were surrounded by huge and rocky price-tags.
Potential buyers sailing by were decoyed by the beauty of these well designed fountainpens to wreck their purses and the fountain pens devoured them.
The Legend
jkrewalk
Apr 3 2007, 01:16 PM
| QUOTE |
| All island locations were surrounded by huge and rocky price-tags. |
Ah yes - surrounded is the key - but if one could climb over those mountains to get to the center of the island..........one would find an OASIS in the center of the island where the inexpensive pens live that actually outperform the more expensive ones. Pens that cost a fraction the price and start up every time without hesitation or skipping. Pens like the amazing 100.00 Lamy 2000 or a 50.00 Parker 51. Or how about a 25.00 Sheaffer Imperial with a buttery smooth reliable nib that NEVER fails to start and won't skip? Or the Waterman Phileas for around 30.00. Yes I could go on - these pens live there surrounded by the incredible expensive pens that many times do not write right out of the box without adjustment and "tweaking"
| QUOTE |
| Potential buyers sailing by were decoyed by the beauty of these well designed fountainpens to wreck their purses and the fountain pens devoured them. |
Yes - exactly! Decoys indeed - that is exactly what they are - decoys to suck in your wallet before you can find out that there are fantastic writing pens over those expensive mountain decoys. Ah - yes - they will dazzle you with their beauty - but will they actually write to the owners satisfaction without being sent back to Europe for months of repair or off to a nibmeister to make them the way you want?
Oh yes - those decoy mountains can be perilous! Potential buyers passing by that see them should be aware that their flawless beauty does not necessarily guarantee flawless functioanlity out of the box - Shame indeed that the Gods who made these pens sometimes put more effort into the beauty of the body and less into the writing quality of the nib that actually does the writing!
FrankB
Apr 3 2007, 01:52 PM
But, unlike intrepid explorers of the past, the FPN exploreres needed not travel alone. There was much fellowship in the company of other island explorers. In that fellowship there was much knowledge passed freely about regarding pathways over the rocks, how to avoid decoys and traps, and how to spare the wounds to the wallets.
Most of all, that fellowship provided perspective. The pens were, after all, not deities but demigods, minor deities, at best. Like the gods of Scandanavian myth, the pens gods were flawed, often wounded or even with parts missing. That knowledge eased the lust of the explorers and allowed them to travel with eyes more sharply focused. When, at last, the explorers had a pen god in hand, they knew they had a thing like the swords of yore - a work to be revered for beauty but wielded as a tool.
Latro21
Apr 3 2007, 07:39 PM
i parachute into said oasis of proper inexpensive pens.
overpriced turds be damned!